Amanda Sorensen
Appearances
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, it's crazy.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I've never tested one, if I'm being honest. Like, it'll be my first time going and driving a hydrogen car. But also, that was, like, I never drove an electric car. And then I drove an electric race car for my first time in Saudi Arabia. You know, so it was definitely...
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And like the goal is you basically we get up to speed. So speeds anywhere from like 80 to 120 going in a straight line where you have full traction. And then you break traction and go sideways.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
The craziest thing for me to get used to was we're racing, you know, in Saudi Arabia, we were racing over kind of where the Neon project is actually. And I just couldn't get over the concept of like no noise. I could hear everything. I could hear the shocks compressing. I could hear the sand hitting the, like the fenders. Wow. I was just like, I cannot, like, is the car breaking?
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
What's happening? You know, like, so there was for me, I was just kind of like, that was the biggest change. It's just, you know, being used to hearing everything that's happening with the car.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, well, I mean, you're hearing the motor, right? You're not hearing like, you're not really hearing like the shocks compressing or like a rock hit the side of the car. So like for me, I was just like, okay, we got to really get used to that.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Is that in like more of a sports car?
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I've seen something like that.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I've never actually followed it, but... People get arrested everywhere. It's crazy. Yeah, that one's crazy. I personally, like, I drive like a grandma on the road. Really? Like, I really follow the speed limit.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Because, like, you know, I just, like, I don't know. So, for me, sometimes when I'm driving, like, I see someone blow by me, like, going 110. I'm like, is that necessary? Like, I just understand the fact that I'm on the road with other drivers who, like, you know, you get into the car with, like, a friend in the passenger seat, and, like, they don't really know how to drive.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And you're like, you can't put that person in the same environment as someone else doing 150. Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah. As a professional driver. It makes me so nervous.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Oh, really? 97.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
That sounds scary. You have to fill these zones. So outside zones, getting your rear bumper as close to the wall as possible.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Honestly, I agree. And for me, my speeding tickets, actually, majority of them came from California, towing a trailer, towing a trailer in California, you have to do 55 towing the trailer towards like everyone else is driving 80 around you are like 70. So yeah, I've been caught a few times in California.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
It's very annoying.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I know. And you're just like, this makes the trip feel 10 times longer.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, it's crazy.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Scotland's good Scotland I've actually been to twice now actually three times so Scotland is where our second stop was for the Extreme E Series we were racing in an abandoned mine so it was an abandoned coal mine that's cool
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
um it was about like 700 feet into the ground i would say like it was pretty insane wow we were racing in and out of this mine so they set up a track in the inside of it um then they had a nice little like outside track on the outside of it and scotland is crazy because the weather is never reliable One day on a Saturday, we raced. It was super sunny. Sunday, we got to the track at like 7 a.m.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
There was so much fog and we couldn't start the race. The live stream had to get pushed back by like a couple hours because our medevac helicopter wasn't able to get in.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Or your front bumper as close to the clipping point as possible while maintaining your line.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So that was unfortunate. Xtreme E was like live, aired live. So a lot of the live streaming stuff was very important. Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, like we showed up and there was nothing we could do with the weather.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Well, so it's actually aired on TV internationally.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So it's on the networks. Don't ask me the channels. The unfortunate part is it doesn't have the largest following here in America. So majority of the time, like my family or friends that were watching, it would come on the channels at like 11 p.m. or like 2 a.m. So like one episode for 30 minutes, the other episode for 30 minutes for like a Saturday, Sunday. But it was huge in Europe.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
angle and then style which is broken down into like fluidity and commitment like how committed are you how good does it look is it graceful is it choppy like every small adjustment um is a deduction in points so there's 100 points that you can get in qualifying and then from there we go into competition style and uh top 16 drivers go into main competition and typically there's anywhere from 40 to 50 competitors that show up on a weekend wow
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
A lot of the drivers were from Europe. A lot of the drivers were actually like we had Sebastian Loeb, who is like an insane rally car driver. Someone like Tanner Faust, who is also rally cars, you know, off road. So I was racing against like the top level drivers. Wow. But a lot of them come from Europe. Yeah, it was huge over in Europe.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's just because if you look back like 20, 30 years and it's like NASCAR was what was popular, you know, we're kind of in that phase where I personally think NASCAR is fading out. You still see a lot of like brands spending insane amount of money there.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
but there is you know like i said the drifting community is growing and um now we have f1 in miami f1 in vegas f1 in texas so like i think we're starting to get more of like a diverse feel for motorsports other than just nascar in america yeah i don't hear as much about nascar as i used to i'll say that Yeah, for sure. The stands are, like, not packed.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Like, I went to a NASCAR race, and I watched the truck series, and there was, like, very few people in the audience. Really? And I'm just like, it's crazy to me.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And, like, the money that the brands are spending there, like, millions and millions of dollars, like, easily $7 million for, like, a Tier 2 sponsor in NASCAR. Holy crap.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Just to be on the car, and it's like... You know, like, there's other motorsports where they are doing larger numbers. Like, drifting is second to NASCAR in, like, their following. And so... Or, sorry, no. Drifting is second most followed on social media. And that's with all American...
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
motorsports so like imsa like sports car racing that kind of stuff wow um but like our audience is millennials right like we're on social media we're watching on live streams um towards like nascar is more of like they're on the network so like the older generation old school yeah exactly so more money in that space basically um yeah i definitely would say like not as much money as like an imsa or an f1 but nascar is just i don't know
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, I actually just competed in a celebrity pickleball tournament.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, I co-hosted the first day with Mario Lopez.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And on the second day, I actually competed in the pickleball tournament. Damn. Let me tell you, I play pickleball with my friends just down the street as a fun thing to do. But to see the brands that we were able to bring on board, like DoorDash, for example... It was just crazy to see, like, how fast this, like, sport's growing.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I just went to Chicken and Pickle down the street, like, here in Vegas, and the thing's packed. Like, to get a bay, it was, like, I had to book two days in advance.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yes.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I'm not sure. Oh, no, no, no. This was different. It's called Celebrity Pickleball Bash. We had like Terrell Owens, Brandi Chastain. So some fun like celebrities. And then we had a few like professional pickleball players.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Honestly, I was co-hosting the first day. There was so much going on. It was my first time co-hosting. I've never done anything like that, so I was just following the script. The script was going off. We were trying to get back on center. It was great, but.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
No. So like this was my first time playing like like I'm not even going to ping pong, you know, so I was like, I'm going to go on stage and go play pickleball in front of all these people in the theater. And it was like NBA All-Star weekend. So, you know, we were in the theater in San Francisco and I was just like, all right, you know, like I'll be the laugh of the show.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I'm not going to be the pro. That's for sure. And I'm embracing it before I go out there.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, my team lost. So, you know, it was fine. I think, um, we were, it was me and Hunter Pence. Um, he's a former, um, basketball, no, former baseball player.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah. And so him and I were teammates. He's very competitive. He definitely held most of the weight for our team, but, um,
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I was playing against Brandi Chastain and also Uriah, who is like a former UFC. Uriah Hall? Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, so that's who I was playing against. Like Brandi just honestly like bullied me like so bad. Like she was just like, we're winning this. All right.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
well you probably had you probably have really fast reaction time right yeah but honestly like when we were on the stage there were so many lights i couldn't see the ball coming oh and i was like i don't know if i'm like silly or what it is but also everyone played the day prior everyone was able they got loose you know like whatever so it was fun time though that's what it was about you did some stuff with the air force i saw on your youtube
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So basically, it's a bracket style competition. And in order to determine your bracket, you have a qualifying. With qualifying, you have, and it's kind of different in every circuit. Some of them are, they want you to battle it out to where the top 32 drivers battled for those positions. Meaning like they did a proper tandem style competition.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah. So I'm actually sponsored by the Air Force. Wow. I've been working with them. This is going to be year four working with them. So we are actually we do a lot with their recruiting team. We really like to, you know, highlight the concept of in the Air Force. There's jets. Right. And with the jets, there's a crew chief tire changer fuel or something.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
um mechanics and that's very similar to our race team so it's a very good crossover collab that we always do like highlighting the similarities between the racing industry and like the air force and the military um like one team one goal type situation yeah so um i've been fortunate enough to do insane things with them i went flown an f-16 with them with the thunderbirds pulled 9.1 g's um that's the fastest jet right yes that's crazy
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I did some canine training with them. I have worked with them on doing some like ground training stuff with their team that goes in with the other like military when they're going into like
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
to a place or a base like and they're not allowed to bring any guns they will be the people like project protecting like everyone as far as like training like chokeholds and like all hand-to-hand stuff self-defense like that kind of stuff um so that was fun i changed a tire on a carrier plane
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So, yeah, it was fun. On a plane. Everything is very book-to-book when it comes to how they do things, which is, like, similar to our race team. Yeah. My tire changer is a similar concept just to their airplane tire changer. So the most recent thing I've done with them was skydiving. I jumped out of an airplane, which I never thought I was going to do. I honestly, like, so I fly planes. Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And I'm not I don't have my license for my private pilot's license, but I have about like 45 hours. So I just haven't done the ground school. But regardless of that, I am like, I'm never jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, you know? And they're like, hey, do you want to go jump with the wings of blue in Colorado at the Air Force Academy?
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And I was like, if I say no, like I'm turning on a one time. Yeah, that sounds crazy.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
um we went jumped with their wings of blue team which is their demo team that like jump into a lot of their events with like the smoke on their feet um so i did a tandem jump and i honestly would love to go again and do skydiving and i want to go get certified so i had so much fun i love like adrenaline rushing things um the concept of like you know
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
you really could it could go wrong fast um i think it's similar to anything else that we do and as long as you're prepared you know like you kind of limit that fear of it but i'm definitely gonna be going and jumping wow so you weren't shitting your pants during that i was i totally was until i jumped out of the airplane and i'm terrified of heights like i will not even cliff dive.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Like I don't like jumping off cliffs. I don't jump off the waterfall into the pool. Like I'm terrified of that.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, it makes me sick to my stomach, but when I stood on the edge, he was like, okay, like take another step. And I was like, what? But like, for me, it was more just like the thought of like falling out before I was ready. You know what I mean? But like, there was really no like time to be ready. Like he was ready. So that didn't matter, you know?
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, but once you jumped out of the plane, like it was so peaceful. Um, I, I,
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
find like it was very similar to like just like riding a harley or like riding a motorcycle like you know you have a lot of like wind in your face um so it was peaceful though like it was so cool once you like deploy the chute you're kind of just floating around we did some tricks like we did a backflip oh my god on your first jump you did yeah so i mean it was the wings of blue team so like full trust in him
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Insane amount of jumps. And we were at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. So we actually went up in the plane with quite a few other kids that were taking skydiving as an elective.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah. In the Air Force, you can choose like your electives. Wow. The only rule that I found out about, though, that I was like, there's no way. There was a guy that was in our plane and he was like, I'm jumping out for my first time. But he was by himself.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Tandem, which means you have a lead driver and a follow driver. The lead driver is performing what they would call a perfect qualifying run, maintaining line angle style. You know, like how we talked about those outside zones, those inside zones.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So in the Air Force, like when you take this academy, like the Air Force Academy in Colorado, when you choose a selective, they train you and they do like the training facility is insane. You know, like there's rappels coming out of the roof, like simulating more of like skydiving for your first time.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
but he trained for a certain amount of weeks and then he went up in the plane and that was his first time jumping so the whole idea is to trust your process trust in yourself and like he packed his own shoe and everything like he jumped out of the plane and I'm like This is your first time jumping out? Like, there's no way I would jump out.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
But, I mean, I guess with that training, it's, like, it's crazy. But, yeah, there was, like, a group of students up there, and that was their elective is skydiving.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, it is. Their training facilities are top-notch. And, like, when I toured this Air Force Academy, you know, there's so much that's going on there. They have... Reaction time training. A lot of the training, actually, I was like, wow, I could use this for my own benefit. You know, the facilities are so nice as far as like the electives. They have so many electives they have.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
It's so focused around like your physical fitness. And like, I'm so into that stuff. And like, you know, just learning about the body and like. that kind of stuff so they have you know pools and sky like high dive jumping and um just a lot of cool like features simulators that will simulate like i went into a simulator and simulated hypoxia really so for like when the jets um
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
obviously begin to lose cabin pressure at a certain altitude, you know, you have a loss of oxygen. Your body goes into hypoxia. So Brandon and I simulated hypoxia on the simulator where they, like, put a mask on us. We were flying a jet on a sim. And they're like, okay, like, we want you to recognize the symptoms of hypoxia.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So, like, typically we have a brand new, like, paint scheme on the car, like, for the first round. And by not even 10, 20 minutes into your first practice session, you have, like, tire marks on your door. We're driving, like, so close to each other that it's, like, you're rubbing, like, the tires on, like, the front fenders.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So this is how they train their fighter jet pilots, like, you know, to know what to do when something like that happens or to recognize the symptoms before it happens and it's too late.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
The follow driver has to be a mirror image of what the lead driver is doing. So like it's crazy because everything happens so fast. It's so important that you study your other components, like all of your other competition components. and you want to know, okay, how is this person going to initiate? How are they going to adjust? At what speeds do they enter? How do they enter?
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Actually, my color went first. So, like, everything turned black and white.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And for my brother, he immediately recognized it. He just felt very lightheaded, he said. So, for me, like, everything turned black and white. And I was like, whoa. Holy crap. But it's the loss of oxygen to your brain.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, I actually... i drive on a sim magic racing sim um which is really popular in the drift industry it's a full e-brake um throttle brake like steering wheel setup with a seat so i have a full 3d screen that kind of like or sorry a full 360 screen that goes around so like i can see everything left to right um
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And that's how we train because like we're talking about like those tire budgets are not cheap.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So it's very, very accurate. It helps with training muscle memory, just getting used to like the visuals. And so that's how I usually typically train for an event.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
um that's a good question like i would say i st louis two years ago i qualified second which was like the highest i've ever qualified okay um and for me like i do four events a year for the formula drift series so with that it's like i've only you know done about 16 i would say um 16 races yeah yeah with formula drift yeah that's not that many right Yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So with the pro level, you do eight a year. So like I go to almost all of them because I own the team with my brother. And so I'm there like managing everything. I do all the sponsorship side of things. So making sure partners are happy, that kind of stuff. But yeah.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
outside of those four formula drift events we also drive in like there's like a grid life event that's like um t-pain will like play there and then he'll also go drift his car so it's like more of a festival style more casual um but i do compete in events about every like three weeks out of the month i would say so you're traveling a lot yeah that's cool i didn't know you own the team too
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, so my brother and I own it together. We have two cars, obviously, but we do all the sponsorship funding. I do that kind of side, and he does the car management side.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, we are.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And this year we're bringing on, I have a 13-year-old brother. He is now the youngest licensed pro spec driver.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So in Formula Drift, he's the youngest licensed driver. So he'll be joining our team. So I'll have three cars, two semis traveling around, and then we're going to have a pro driver come on the other team. So two semis traveling to eight major markets across the United States competing in these Formula Drift events.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And four cars total.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Honestly, it's one of those things, like, the family time that you get driving at the track together doing, like, motorsports is so addictive. You know, like... In motorsports, there's more than just driving the car, like we've talked about. Like, you know, managing the budgets, managing partnerships, managing relationships, understanding how to build a personal brand, talking to PR.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Or, like, you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall. And they call it, like, you know, you ride the wall and you leave the paint mark on the white concrete barrier.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So it's nonstop. Like, every single day that I wake up is dedicated to growing, like, my own personal brand, as well as like my career in motorsports, you know, so same with my brothers. And it was just kind of like that hobby, like I said, that took over and turned into a career.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, as far as what's next, you never really know. Like, going into 2025, I will be driving in Formula Drift and Pro Spec, possibly dipping my feet into some more off-road stuff. I have a huge partnership announcement coming out, so I'm super stoked. And I'll be signing with an energy drink, which I think is super awesome.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And as a follow driver, you want to mirror them. So then once they go and do their lead run, you swap, go back to the line, and then now it's your turn. You do a lead run and your other person who's following does a follow run.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
But... I, yeah, just continue, like, pushing, growing the personal brand, driving in all these different types of motorsports. And they can find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook at Amanda Sorensen.
Digital Social Hour
Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
that's insane so and the crazy thing about it all is um each run that we do the reason why it's uh kind of so short is because we go through a set of tires every two laps oh my gosh so you get your lead run and then you get your follow run on that set of tires because it's the rubber's just burning off right yeah exactly that's crazy sounds expensive too Yeah, tire budgets are definitely a thing.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Honestly, I think in competition, it's kind of... It depends. When you lead first, you are more subject to if you make a mistake in the lead line, obviously your person who's following is going to be affected by your mistake. Right. So if you're leading first, you have the most pressure because if I mess up in my run, then I know I really have to push in my follow run.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Thank you.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
to where as if I follow first and the other guy makes a mistake, I know that I don't have to do anything crazy or wow to win the judges over in my lead run.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I know. Follow first. Some people have different preferences. It really just depends on the track, like who you're battling. Some people, there's a lot of like, there are some drivers that love to play games. So, you know, they'll hesitate on the takeoff or they'll be doing a certain type of initiation and entry every single time during practice.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
But then as soon as it gets to competition, they'll change it. So like...
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
you know there's very um there's a lot of strategies that go on behind i like that because i'm a chess player yeah exactly kind of similar so there's some mental games going on too it's not just about the race so you got to really just you cannot react to your lead driver you have to anticipate your lead driver you know similar with chess i'm not a big chess fan but like you're not i've never really played chess to be honest assuming it's the same it's a good game because it's all skill based yeah i'm not a fan of luck
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of skill. Back to what I was saying, though, with like you have one chance, you have one chance to rely on your car to also work. You know, so like it's huge and it's crucial that the preparation that goes into preparing for the competition is very perfect. My team that I have, I have a team of quite a few people.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And, you know, we have our engineers, we have our tire changers, we have our feelers. But even that, like our crew chief, like I could go out and my car could overheat at the line. Wow. And I can call a five minute timeout and I have five minutes to fix the car. So I've definitely had to call five before.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
When you call a five, it's typically when you're on the spot, like up, ready to go and compete or possibly do your lead run. You find a problem with the car. Something happens. You want to call five.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
you're not allowed to touch the car until the technical directors are there and they start the clock at five minutes if you touch the car you're automatically disqualified that's when your time starts um the preparation that goes on behind the scenes with pre-season prep is like say we do get into a crash in my lead run you know and my guys have five minutes to fix the shock in the front arm
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I have these spare boxes that are full complete sets of bolt on bolt off for each corner of the car. So typically in our trailer, we have my car as well as my brother's car. We have two full sets to build two completely different cars.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Five minutes. And our crew guys will practice that.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
obviously there is a point in time where you're like okay this is unreasonable to do like a motor change in five minutes you know like yeah you just have to call it but there is that kind of crucial factor but like as much as you can prepare for those moments the better off you are because you know you don't there's really no luck it's more of like the preparation and the skill yeah that's insane our accident's pretty common in this
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So like typically we have a brand new like paint scheme on the car like for the first round and by not even 10, 20 minutes into your first practice session, you have a tire marks on your door. We're driving like so close to each other that it's like you're rubbing like the tires on like the front fenders or like.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
You're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall and they call it like, you know, you ride the wall and you leave the paint mark on the white concrete barrier.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, we go through a lot of taillights. Oh my gosh. A lot of bumpers. There's like definitely not like bumper budget is like another thing.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, it's very like mind challenging, I would say. A lot of other drivers... I personally feel like I've driven in many different forms of motorsports and many different disciplines. So for me, drifting is honestly the hardest when it came to mental preparation. Wow.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I figure skated for 10 years, and every single time I would practice my routine over and over and over again, at least one of my jumps or spins would not be how I wanted it to be during competition.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, drifting is actually a very unique sport because it's more like a competition style. It's not like who is the first person to cross the finish line with like typical racing. There's a lot of like mentality training that goes into it because you really just have one shot or you go home. But it's kind of like surfing or similar to like ice skating. There's three judges.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So it's kind of similar to...
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
when i'm drifting it's like you can prepare as much as you possibly can but when you're actually like get up to the line the nerves are applied the pressure is applied that's when it really matters like yeah that's when the mental training can kind of really come into play i'm the same way in basketball with free throws i'll make 20 in a row and then the game starts i'll miss every single free throw yeah it's crazy how the sport can do that to you right
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Well, and for me, it was crazy, too, just because, like, I had, like, I was able to see how, like, my younger childhood, like, sports that I played in really translated into, like, what I'm doing as a career now. And, like, with figure skating, like, it wasn't up until I was about maybe 14, 15, and I was at a drift competition, and it just clicked, like, one day, and I was like...
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
it's no different than a practice run like why am I getting so worked up about it you know um I found ways to actually calm my body down I love cold plunging and like when I first started cold plunging I used to be like freaking out you know like you get in the water and you're like this is so hard yeah but you kind of find a way to bring your heart rate down you know you focus on one thing you slow your breath down you slow your heart rate down like same concept when it comes to you know pulling up to the line or going out to skate in the competition
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, exactly.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yes, first female to podium in Formula Drift. That's incredible. Making history. I've been working at that goal for about three years. Congrats. So it was a very emotional accomplishment. There's no female in pro, so I'm in pro spec. There's four ranks, similar to NASCAR. You know how, like, in NASCAR, you have ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup Series.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
With Formula Drift or the drifting scene, you have, like, a grassroots level, which is more of, like, lower horsepower cars. You know, you could bring, like, your mom's car up and try to drift it. And then you have, like, your pro-am level.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And in order to move up the ranks, you have to place top three in the championship. So that's for a full season, which means events anywhere between four to eight rounds, winning that championship and placing top three. So there's pro-am, pro-spec, and then pro. Got it. So I'm in pro-spec, and I'm the highest ranking in pro-spec for females, but no...
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
um, female has ever made it to pro like in the world. So for me, my goal is to be, you know, that one. And like, I don't know how I ended up in this sport, to be honest, like my brother and I just kind of really gravitated towards it. We love the idea of it. We have great support there. We love the atmosphere.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, and you know, it's more of like a family hobby turned career type situation, but my goal is to be the first female in pro.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Oh, really?
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
I don't know about, like, first, but she definitely was, like, an icon.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, she's awesome.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, we have one other female in my division. Internationally, there's about... I would say at a higher level, kind of like similar to my level, there's only about like five or six females.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
And I couldn't even put a number on how many males.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, exactly.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
You have a line, angle, style. And we're driving on these tracks that are about like A quarter of a mile. And we're driving on the NASCAR tracks typically or like a road racing track like Atlanta. So these are like same tracks that like a lot of the IMSA circuit goes on or NASCAR. And they'll put out these clipping points like an outside zone, an inside zone.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
No, we're all friends. Everyone. That's what I love about the drifting community. And like, even when I go to a practice event, like I'm going to on this Saturday and like you pull up to a practice event and it's so accessible to the general public, like the drifting events and just drifting in general, that there is such a large female audience there.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, so a lot of the females support each other over on the East coast. They have this like club called drift kitchen and it's like at least 20 females that have drift cars like in one state. And so, um, a lot of the girls support each other. Everyone loves to just go out and like drive with your friends. Like that's the concept of drifting.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
So Formula Drift came to the United States in 2003. And I like was one years old at that time. But it's crazy because I didn't really follow it until about COVID time, like 2019, I would say.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
but it came to the united states in 2003 and it's the fastest growing motorsport wow in the usa right now that's impressive so um for me i have really just been able to go and travel the world and see the other drift series other than just formula drift here so there's like drift masters in europe um their last round is in poland and
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
in a stadium that sells out with 60 000 people damn so it's crazy because i didn't really understand the potential of this sport until i had gone international with it i also didn't understand my social media following until i had realized how huge it is like internationally in brazil in europe in japan like the scenes over there are insane so you got a big international following then
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Yeah, exactly. And I didn't understand that, you know, like until I went to like a true like cultured car event overseas.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
That was different. That was like a rally race that I was doing. So I race in this series called Extreme E. There's 10 races. We race in five different remote locations in an electric race car.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
All wheel drive electric race car. I raced for GMC and our car was like a replica of a Hummer EV. I actually daily to Hummer EV, which I thought was like pretty great. Like I really wasn't into electric cars until I daily one. And I was like, OK, this is kind of cool. But I got to work a lot with the team on developing the front to rear power. There's so much you can do.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
with the technology with having an electric race car that i had no idea about i didn't know they were that advanced yeah like turning inputs like if my steering wheel is turned at like 10 15 degrees i can distribute the power front rear to a certain ratio you know you can't do that with a combustion engine yeah um so there was a lot of like development that i worked with uh with the team there
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
some of them are fast i think what is it the cyber trucks like 1.8 seconds 0 to 60 now yeah they're crazy that's really fast that must be faster than most like non-electric cars i'd imagine i definitely think like the electric with commotion engine like the hybrid um prototype cars that they're doing are like insane because obviously you have the torque you know you can't have that torque without the electric um motor yeah how often are you doing rallies
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
Um, this year I'm actually taking off the Extreme E series has been put on a pause right now. They're developing a hydrogen car.
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Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1220
It's the first FIA licensed hydrogen racing series called Extreme H. Um, as soon as they come out with the full schedule for Extreme H, Extreme E will more than likely be a tag along series. So I'll get back into that stuff once they launch all the season, um, details.